Although Belong marks Jay Som’s first new album in six years, Melina Duterte has had a hand in among the finest music to return out of every of these years. Along with releasing a file with Palehound’s Ellen Kempner in as Bachelor in 2021, she labored on data that led a number of bands to be featured in our Artist Highlight sequence: Tenci and Dwelling Hour in 2022, Fenne Lily and Chris Farren in 2023. Simply previously couple of years, she helped produce boygenius’ the file and Lucy Dacus’ Perpetually Is a Feeling. When the time got here to revisit her solo venture, Duterte felt the urge to open up her sound to exterior collaborators, enlisting contributions from Joao Gonzalez (of Comfortable Glas), Mk.gee/illuminati hotties collaborator Mal Hauser, Steph Marziano, and Kyle Pulley, in addition to visitor vocals from a few of her largest heroes, together with Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Adkins, and Mini Timber’ Lexi Vega. Belong is expansive and thrilling at each flip, clearly energized as a lot by Duterte’s experimental impulses as her nostalgic love for traditional various rock. Even after they lean into moodier, extra subdued territory, these songs aren’t meant for sulking, however as Duterte places it on ‘Previous Lives’, spiraling up. It’s good firm to really feel part of.
We caught up with Jay Som to speak about Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American, the O.C. soundtrack, Atwater Village, and different inspirations behind her new album Belong.
Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World
Was the file a reference level earlier than Jim Adkins entered the image as a collaborator on Belong?
Yeah, that was a straightforward selection. I feel that album and simply the Jimmy Eat World various rock world was the catalyst for doing one thing completely different on this new file. Leaning closely in the direction of various rock versus doing what I did earlier than, which is simply shoegaze, dream pop, indie, bedroom-ish music. And it’s an album which means so much to me. My brother and I actually love this album. We purchased it at a Barnes & Noble, and it was when Barnes & Noble had CD sections and a Starbucks, so we might hang around all day on Saturdays or Sundays and simply peruse the CDs. Additionally they had headphones, so you might hearken to samples of the CDs, which was my favourite factor to do. I’d simply stand there listening to all these artists, and Bleed American was considered one of them.
It did change my life and nonetheless holds as much as at the present time. It sounds prefer it may have come out yesterday. The songwriting is simply expert-level songwriting, and the way in which that they’re performing is as if it’s the top of the world and they should file this proper now and present it to you. It’s very rapid. Jim’s vocals are actually unimaginable, and an enormous purpose why I had him on ‘Float’. ‘Float’ was the primary track that I wrote and recorded for the file, so to have that Jimmy Eat World spirit and be the stamp of the preliminary track for the file, was actually essential shifting ahead all through the method.
Did you ask him questions on Bleed American, or did you shrink back from actually moving into it?
I saved it fairly skilled. Till the very finish, once we have been texting, and I simply obtained to be like, “Hey, thanks a lot,” and I obtained to inform him the story concerning the Bleed American CD stuff. There was a second the place we have been texting backwards and forwards, and he’s an enormous gearhead. He has a studio, and he loves recording music, so we bonded for a second that method. I nonetheless haven’t met him in individual, so I’m hoping that’ll occur quickly sooner or later.
Atwater Village, CA
I’ve lived right here since June 2020, so proper in the midst of the pandemic. My companion and I and our buddy discovered this house that I’m in proper now, and our former roommate used to reside on this room, and she or he lived right here for a pair years. I really feel like I had my second puberty right here – I don’t know easy methods to say it – in a musical sense. I had a studio up within the attic, and I used to be recording a bunch of pals, I used to be mixing, I discovered easy methods to grow to be much more of a gear nerd. I spent a lot time on this home simply creating and studying, and I’ve had so many pals and bands and artists come by to file or combine. By the point I began making my very own file, I felt like a very completely different individual, and I form of didn’t acknowledge my recording abilities, strategies, and even my style.
I feel while you work with individuals for therefore lengthy, you do begin to lose a form of sense of your id for those who’re doing the identical job as them – music. Working with numerous solo artists, I’m in a spot of supporting them and serving to them notice their imaginative and prescient. So by the point I had all my gear arrange and all the things’s absolutely realized, I obtained higher at engineering, I keep in mind pondering, “I need assistance.”
I feel having the ability to reside a home way of life in Atwater was actually essential. I’ve a canine, she’s proper there behind me – she’s at all times proper there. I get to go exterior for walks, and there’s a espresso store 10 minutes away. We might go to the farmer’s market on a regular basis. Simply to clear my head, I’d stroll round right here. This neighborhood’s filled with actually lovely creatives. There’s a man that teaches ukulele courses each Tuesday. There’s a man throughout the road that performs a tuba together with his door open. Whenever you stroll down the road, you hear him enjoying the tuba, and it’s very goofy, however it’s actually cool. There’s three drummers across the blocks. After which there’s me, a really loud individual. There’s simply one thing concerning the neighborhood and the vitality right here that I actually like and units it other than sure locations that I’ve been in in LA.
Was it an odd feeling, then, to take these songs to completely different studios and be faraway from the place the place they have been possibly conceived?
Yeah, it felt completely different. To depart Atwater for a second was slightly arduous, since you get used to your routine. However to depart to go to Nashville or Philly was really actually enjoyable and actually essential, as a result of I felt much less distracted after I was not in LA. And I did that with my final file, too. I went to Joshua Tree for per week, and that helped me write much more. To be in Philly helped so much with simply inspiration and never feeling like I wanted to get an errand performed, or I wanted to see this buddy that I haven’t seen shortly, and simply give attention to the job.
The O.C. soundtrack
You’ve talked about it opening your eyes when it comes to music, because it did for lots of people, particularly indie rock music. Do you have a tendency to return to it usually, or is it one thing that simply sits in your thoughts?
Yeah, it’s at all times in my thoughts. I really feel like I used to be launched to Pinback by it, and I already beloved Demise Cub for Cutie, however they have been large on the time, and so they have been in an episode, too. I simply really feel like whoever was the music supervisor for that present did an incredible job in introducing me to so many artists on that roster. One among my favourite issues about music supervisors, particularly after they’re good, is that they know easy methods to management a scene. They make you are feeling one thing, not simply with the feelings from the actors, however from the music – when it performs, which part of the track it performs, how lengthy the track performs for, whether or not it’s an instrumental or if it’s a lyrically pushed portion of the track for a scene. I really feel like they obtained that. There’s a scene with among the primary characters and ‘Hallelujah’, the duvet by Jeff Buckley performs – superb selection, I nonetheless consider that.
My co-producer, Joao Gonzalez, who mainly co-produced the entire file with me, can be a big OC fan, and we point out it so much. We have been obsessive about Seth Cohen, and we actually wished to be similar to him. He’s form of this nerdy, know-it-all music dude, a lovable, affable character. However it’s additionally as a result of I reside in California, too, and there’s the nostalgic ingredient of all the choice rock that comes out of right here.
After I consider nice fashionable indie rock soundtracks, my thoughts goes to I Noticed the TV Glow, which you in fact contributed to. What was that have like? Do you would like that form of compilation occurred extra usually for TV and flicks?
Yeah, I believed that was an unimaginable factor to be part of. Jane [Schoenbrun] was superb, and so they got here to me with a imaginative and prescient, together with the opposite artists on the soundtrack. They stated, “Right here’s this immediate for you, are you able to simply do it?” They gave me a Spotify playlist, and I believed it was simply the best factor. There was no controlling ingredient. It was very very like, “I got here to you for a purpose, are you able to do your factor, however with the lens of constructing a Teenage Fanclub track?” And yeah, I don’t see that always with movies. Perhaps there are extra examples, however what? The Minions soundtrack with Tame Impala? To not examine it to the Minions soundtrack, however that’s the one factor I can consider.
Phoebe Bridgers is on each of these soundtracks, so she’s form of the connecting hyperlink.
Yeah, Phoebe’s on there. Love her.
trip9love…??? by Tirzah
This one stands out as a novel reference level, however it is sensible by the lens of songs like ‘Meander/Sprouting Wings’ and even ‘A Million Causes Why’. Is that the place it suits in?
100%. I’ve been taking in and processing opinions from individuals and feedback from some individuals, and many individuals aren’t into the second half of the file. And I perceive why. It’s as a result of it’s the weirder aspect of my music style, which is one thing that I like. Me and Joao constructed the sequencing for the file so quick, and it simply made sense to us. It made sense to place ‘Meander/Sprouting Wings’, ‘A Million Causes Why’, and ‘Need It All’ all collectively, as a result of it simply was one thing that I beloved
There’s one thing about trip9love…??? that’s so weird, however I adore it. It seems like one track all through the whole album. It makes use of the identical drum loop, similar piano loops right here and there, and the melodies are form of off. However to me, it feels so free. There’s no purpose why they did this or that – possibly the intention is simply because they preferred it, and it sounded cool, and there’s no deep creative purpose why all the things’s so repetitive and so weird. However to me, as a listener, I can get actually misplaced on this file. There’s the droney ingredient of all of it, and I simply am a fan of weird decisions in data. It retains me on my toes. I additionally love pop music, too, I like customary formulation and conserving individuals excited. However it’s only a bizarre little man.
What did you take pleasure in about dipping into that hazier, otherworldly place for that part of Belong?
I feel what appealed to me is that it felt like a comedown from the highest of the file. I actually love science fiction, and that additionally pertains to the subsequent inspiration, however simply otherworldly fantasy, fictional-type tales, and the visible representations of that. I feel ‘Meander/Sprouting Wings’ was my likelihood to experiment with that world, as a result of it’s one thing I’ve at all times wished to do, and people songs got here essentially the most pure to me. The headspace that I used to be in was mainly simply pondering, these two songs reside on this world collectively, I can’t separate them. They complement one another indirectly, and I don’t know why, however I don’t wish to separate them, so it turned this two-song, one-song factor.
‘A Million Causes Why’ because the penultimate track simply gave the impression of a pattern, however with out a full track in it. I used to be simply imagining taking out a pattern for a track – how French Home was at all times taking songs from the ‘70s or disco tracks, making full songs out of them. I simply keep in mind pondering, what if I simply did a pattern track, and it form of gave the impression of a voicemail. It will get fairly moody in the direction of the top, however it felt enjoyable.
The German Netflix present Darkish
I like this TV present. It’s actually superb, and I watched it twice. The primary time, I watched it in German with subtitles, and the second time, I watched it in English dub. There’s one thing very inspirational concerning the the craft of all of it – the actors, the script, the music, all the things was so intentional. They only went for it. There’s twists and turns, there’s some weirdness, there’s lovely romance. I might pause scenes generally to only jam or write music, as a result of generally after I watch one thing that impacts me actually deeply, I must pause it for a second, after which proceed. That was a kind of actually inspiring TV exhibits to look at. It was at all times behind my head all through the record-making course of this yr.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability and size.
Jay Som’s Belong is out now by way of Fortunate Quantity.
